zamyn-uud (border town)- the post with all the photographs has been completed, please read to the end- sorry for any inconvenience caused

we have made it through the mongolian gobi in one piece and are all most impressed with wilma and larry. we gave them a celebratory wash this morning in honour of their achievements.

we drove 300 miles from ulaanbaatar to the border.

the whole camp is agreed that the gobi has been one of the best, if not the best, parts of our trip. the varried terrain and complete lack of road made it exciting while the vegitation, wildlife and night sky made it beautiful. one of the things that most suprised daddy was the contrast in temperature and landscape as we journeyed south; i, however, was not suprised being a budding and dedicated geographer (and having read the lonely planet).

the road was worst friday arriving at the border town, particularly as we were all keenly looking out for the 10 km of tarmac that was promised us as we neared the border. there is, in fact, about 1 km. friday was also the most sandy and having to close the windows to stop the dust getting in the the the angry heat was aweful.

our luxery in this town has been a some-what dubious hotel with, again, not hot water. for our much needed showers we were forced to use the camping shower that i recieved for my birthday which funnily enough had not been used in the great gobi incase of a water shortage.

since being in this town we have;
1. gone train watching and taken lots of photographs of the train in the station before they cross the border.
2. eaten at the same restaurant opposite our hotel 4 times and have become favourites.
3. looked everywhere for an internet cafe event though daddy was such he knew where one was. in the end we found a really expensive one and this one with a dial-up connection.
4. been to get larry's puncture fixed.
5. found more caviar at our new favourite supermarket.
6. called our chinese guide, who goes by the name of queenie, to arrange meeting her on the chinese side of the border at 10 o'clock this monday.
7. washed out clothes.



we must also say that we are most impressed with granny's budding computer skills and hope she had a good time on open house day. glad you are enjoying the photographs; they are made to amuse/ enthral all but some of the flower ones were taken with you in mind granny.

we hope trevor is well although know that alarming the locals is not a new concept to him.

we love you ling.

we hope that you are all as pleased as we are to be back on the road once more. we take it from the amount of complaints we have recieved that everyone has had enough of posts from ulaanbaatar.

daddy says:
the road from ulaanbaatar will be completed next year.
said road is being done by a chinese contractor with indian consultants.
we saw a massive bug. it was greeny-brown and was a cross between a spider and a grass hopper.